SUDAN: nearly 20.3M people experience acute food insecurity between July and September 2023

Following months of increasing tensions between Sudan’s two main armed forces, fighting broke out on 15 April, turning Khartoum and wider areas of the capital into a battlefield. Since then, fighting has also spread to the conflict-weary Darfur region as well as parts of Kordofan and Blue Nile states. The events of the last three months have deepened an already existing humanitarian crisis and further deteriorated Sudan’s already dire food security situation.

Between July and September 2023, 20.3 million people across Sudan (over 42 percent of the country’s population) have been driven into high levels of acute food insecurity, classified in IPC Phase 3 or above (Crisis or worse). Of those, 14 million people (29 percent of the population) are in IPC Phase 3, Crisis, and almost 6.3 million people (13 percent) are experiencing worse conditions in IPC Phase 4, Emergency. Compared to the results from the last IPC analysis conducted in May 2022, the number of highly food insecure people has nearly doubled.

The rapid deterioration in Sudan’s food security situation is driven by conflict and insecurity – with the most affected areas being Khartoum State, Greater Darfur and Greater Kordofan – high food prices and climate shocks and hazards. Conflict has exacerbated Sudan’s food insecurity by triggering a large-scale displacement of 2.6 million people across all states of Sudan – forcing nearly 760,000 Sudanese refugees to flee into neighbouring countries; damaging and destroying key civilian infrastructure; impeding humanitarian access; disrupting markets; and further depressing an already fragile economy.

An IPC projection for the period of October 2023 to February 2024 foresees 15 million people in IPC Phase 3 or above, during Sudan’s harvesting season. This is the highest ever recorded figure of people in IPC Phase 3 or above during this period that coincides with the harvest in Sudan. The high levels of acute food insecurity projected, despite the favourable seasonal pattern, are clear indications that conflict will likely continue to exacerbate Sudan’s food insecurity in the mid to long term.

Source IPC